Disclaimer: check previous...nothing has changed. i'm still not rich -.-'

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Chapter 9: Last Week: Fight, This Week: Tight - Part 2

I cannot help it I couldn't stop it if I tried
The same old heartbeat fills the emptiness I have inside
And I've heard that you can't fight love, so I won't complain
'Cause why would I stop the fire that keeps me going on?

'Cause when there's you, I feel whole
And there's no better feeling in the world
But without you I'm alone
And I'd rather be in love with you

- - I'd Rather Be In Love (Michelle Branch)

Rinoa trudged down the stairs of the rented lodge, clad in a skirt and halter neck when she heard the annoying screams of her mother from the living room where a heated match of Scrabble was taking place between Raine, Laguna and Julia.

"'Lostness' is not a word Raine!" Julia protested, reaching for the dictionary that lay close at hand.

"It is too! It describes the level of - it describes how lost one is."

Laguna snatched the dictionary from Rinoa's mother. "No, Julia's right honey. There's no such word."

"But she got away with 'won't' without an apostrophe."

Julia rolled her eyes. "That word isn't 'won't' its wont, and that is an actual word referring to customary usage."

"Yeah, she's right honey." Laguna nodded as he searched the dictionary.

Rinoa entered the room just as Raine was about to snap at Laguna for taking sides. "Umm, hi you guys. You know, when you said you had rented out a seaside resort, I sorta got the impression that you were going to actually take the time to relax...on the beach."

"Nonsense. You go have fun on the beach...we'll have fun here. Unless you want to join."

She raised an eyebrow at her mother. Oh God, you've got to be kidding me. "No it's okay. I wouldn't want to ruin your fun." With that, she turned on her heel and made for her room upstairs. Passing Squall's room, she noticed it was open and, knocking quickly, entered to find it empty. Stepping out again, she found herself colliding into something or someone.

Crap...

"Looking for me?" she heard Squall's voice resonate from behind her.

Rinoa rolled her eyes at his cockiness and, remaining in her position with her back to him for a few seconds, explained herself. "I was, actually. I was in search of you because I was going to ask if I could - " she stopped mid-sentence as she turned around to face him, in hopes of gaining more confidence while looking straight into his eyes. Big mistake, she reflected, as she turned, not only to lose the little confidence she had mustered up as he caught her off guard, but also to forget her entire speech of requesting permission to borrow something. She swallowed slowly as she was, once again, forced to take in his image. She didn't know how much timed passed as she observed his exposed well-toned body, as he wore nothing more than a towel around his waist after his shower that had left his hair wet and tousled. To Rinoa, it seemed that she'd stared at him for a whole hour, but she dared to examine him for a few seconds more. Yum...those years of Tae Kwon Do did do you some good...

Aware of her prying eyes on him, he smiled slightly to himself, not fully allowing himself to enjoy the moment as much as he should've. "You were going to ask if you could what?"

"Umm..." She tried to recall her purpose there, not aided by the fact that there was less than 10 cm of air existing between them. Think, Rinoa, think! Closing her eyes, she shook herself out of her reverie. "I was going to ask if I could borrow your discman, but after thinking for a bit just now, I just remembered that I did bring mine after all, so I don't need to borrow your's anymore. So, uh, I'll be going." Forcing a smile, Rinoa backed into her room adjacent to Squall's and shut the door behind her, allowing herself to then fall forward onto her bed. Oh my God! How embarrassing! And to think I actually enjoyed the sight of him looking all...She pictured him once again ...yum. Okay, Rin, snap out of it...you can't possibly think of Squall like this. For one thing, he's Jem's best friend and secondly...he's Squall! She frowned in response to her thought. So what if he's Squall...okay, I should stop having mental conversations with myself...

- - -

After recovering from her embarrassing experience that morning, Rinoa had settled on taking a book down to the beach and reading. However, although she'd intended on reading, she found herself lying on her back, eyes closed, wearing only her bikini top and board shorts, receiving an uneven tan. With her earphones in place, she continued to listen to her music, content with being the only one on the beach. Private beach...I might get used to this. A familiar tone sounded through her music, signalling a call on her cell phone. Pushing up to lean on her elbow, Rinoa reached over to the pile of clothes and into the pocket of her skirt. Glancing at the caller ID, she rolled her eyes and accepted the call, removing the earphones from where her ears, knowing full well what was about to transpire.

"Okay, Rin. It's 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon. You would've spent a whole night with him already, so fill me in," Quistis demanded eagerly, a grin plastered onto her face.

"Hello to you too, Quisty. You do realise you're encouraging me to cheat on Jem."

"I am not! You're the one who controls your actions...I'm merely asking about it. Whether or not you cheat on Jem is totally your call."

"Uh huh...so the fact that nothing has happened between us would mean nothing since you don't expect me to cheat...right?" A smile tugged at her lips as Quistis silenced on the other end. "But if you're interested...he looks damn good without a shirt on."

"Rinoa Caraway! You said nothing happened!"

She, once again, rolled her eyes. "Are you sure you're not a typical blonde, Quistis Trepe? I saw him after his shower. "Rinoa paused to choose her words carefully. "I bumped into him on his way to his room, so I got a good look."

The blonde waited for Rinoa to continue, and when she didn't she added, "And...?"

Rinoa remembered the events of that morning and tried her best to keep her composure, making her reply sound as nonchalant as possible. "He's pretty hot, I guess."

"You guess?" Quistis asked, disappointment evident in her tone. "And here I was thought you were going to tell me how you went weak in the knees at the sight of him and started dreaming of you and Squall flying off into the unknown together locked in a gravitational embrace."

A raised eyebrow appeared on Rinoa's face. "Alright hun, you have got to calm your imagination down. I'm serious...you're starting to scare me now."

"Well fine...for my own curiousity, just tell me what's hidden under his clothes."

"I dunno..." Rinoa glanced back at the house they had hired, trying to remember what she'd seen. Keeping her gaze there, she continued, "He's got a well-toned body, I guess. I'm not even entirely sure of what a well-toned body looks like, but I'm pretty sure his was. What else...um..."

"What about his arms?"

Well they certainly aren't chicken wings..."Did I ever mention to you that he does Tae Kwon Do?"

"He does?"

"Well he did. I don't know if he still does, but crap-"

"What? What's happened?"

"He's coming towards me. I'm hanging up now."

"Ugh! Fine then be-"

Quistis hardly got another word in as Rinoa snapped her cell phone shut and tossed it onto the pile of clothes beside her. Then, turning on her tummy, she picked up her book and opened it to where her bookmark had been placed an hour before, at the same time replacing the earphones into her ears. Gee, Rin, that was smooth.

Squall chuckled to himself as he saw Rinoa in the distance reading. She comes to the beach to read...weird. Carefully, he stepped across the sand to where she lay, making sure he didn't drop the plate he had brought with her lunch on it. He slowed his pace as he neared her, waiting for her to take notice of him. Only when he had managed to block the sun by hovering over her did she look up and take an earphone out. She forced an, obviously, uneasy smile. "Hey Squall." She eyed the plate in his hand, with a hamburger on it, and the can of lemonade in his other hand. Uhuh...how thoughtful of him to bring me lunch...

"Hey, your mum was getting worried and she asked me to bring you lunch."

"So that they could continue their scrabble match?" Rinoa rolled her eyes, trying to hide her disappointment. So mum sent him on an errand...okay, not so thoughtful anymore.

"You bet. So anyhow, here's your lunch. I would've brought dessert as well, but melted ice cream isn't exactly all that pleasant." She sat up as he knelt down onto the sand and sat down, passing over her food.

"Nah it's okay. I'll have double for dinner. Thanks, Squall," she said, struggling to keep it from sounding forced.

"No problem." Squall eyed her closed book. "What you reading there?"

"Some play for English. You'll probably be starting it soon, too."

Squall leant back onto his hands and stretched his legs out in front of him. "Any good?" she shot him an unbelieving glance as if to say 'are you kidding me?' while she took a bite. That was confirmation enough. "Fair enough. So did you actually bring all your homework this weekend?"

"No, not really." She shook her head. "I should have time to do most of it tomorrow night, assuming we actually get home early enough."

"Well you did bring your own car, that probably means you can leave whenever you want. You could leave now if you wanted to be rid of me." He smirked internally, guessing what her reaction would be.

"I don't want to be rid of you. Its just been a really long time since we last spoke and I dunno how to talk to you yet."

"No one's saying you have to talk to me, you know."

"Yeah, but I want to." Rinoa bit her lip as her excitement began to control her.

Oh really...? "Yeah?"

"Well..." she started, carefully formulating her words. "Contrary to popular belief, I'm actually not a bitch and I don't particularly like having enemies. So being friends with you means one less enemy, and please don't take that the wrong way."

Squall shrugged indifferently, hiding his amusement. "Fine, whatever. Don't mean to be all cliché or anything, but just be yourself. I'd rather you not pretend around me."

"And why's that?" she queried with a frown.

"'Cause I wanna get to know you better."

Silence ensued as Rinoa finished off her food, pausing every now and then to glance at Squall who did nothing but stare out into the ocean. Definitely a thoughtful guy, she concluded. Having now sat up, she remembered that she wore only a bikini top and her board shorts. Casting her view onto the pile of clothes next to Squall, her singlet top and skirt, she wondered if she could swipe them and change without drawing too much attention to herself. Once more her gaze fell on him, her mind formulating a plan. A smile played on his lips as he felt her stare at him.

"So you feel like ice cream?"

Rinoa blinked out of her reverie, covering her bare stomach with crossed arms. "Huh?"

He sat up and cocked his head to one side slightly, a playful grin on his face. "Do you want ice cream? My treat."

"Umm, yeah, sure okay," she stuttered, still trying to get out of her predicament of being half naked on a beach with no one but Squall for company. Perfect.

"I saw this ice-cream shop when I went to explore the little village. It looked pretty cool. Wanna go now?"

Okay, now you have an excuse to get dressed. "Alright. Let me just put something on." Kneeling up to stand, she grabbed her clothes quickly, and turned away from him.

Squall watched as she got up, dusting the sand away from her body. He let his eyes take her image in fully as she pulled her top on. Realising that he was getting slightly carried away, he suppressed his grin, turning his focus away back to the ocean. Rinoa looked over her shoulder as she zipped up her skirt glad, though a little disappointed, to find Squall not looking back. Kneeling down again, she gathered up her belongings - her discman and book - and put them into her utility bag.

"Ready?" he asked as Rinoa put on her flip-flops and stood, waiting.

"Let's go. Though we should probably take the plate back."

"Yeah okay. We have to go passed the house anyway," he replied, picking up the plate and now empty soda can.

As they made their way back to the house, no words were said. Occasionally their hands would brush, sending a shiver up Rinoa's back and making Squall smile. Rinoa, too, smiled, glancing every few seconds at Squall fleetingly, too shy to say anything to him. For an instant, she let her mind wander.

I think I'm starting to like Squall...

A/N - okay, yes i am aware it has been a while and the reasons of such a delay have been explained, and if you have a problem with that, please feel free to email me, my email addy and website are available in my profile page. alright...so how was this chappy? was it worth the wait or should i just give up all together? am i totally losing my writing skill? i hope not! anyway, its 5 weeks into the last term for the school year here in oz, which menas in another 5 weeks i'll be free to update as frequently or as scarcely as i wish! . so please tell me what you thought of this chapter ...PLEASE R&R! you have no idea how much your comments mean to me! i think i should totally forget about writing personal responses, it takes too much time on top of the many weeks i tkae to write...so none of them for a while sorry. but yeah! if you wanna talk to me about this fic or anything, don't hesitate at all to email me! ok...well R&R and hopefully i'll update in time for christmas!

luv ya'll!
- - e.t .